Segun Osoba has been a key witness to Nigeria’s chequered history.
In 1966, after the first coup, Osoba was the first journalist to see and report on the state of the corpse of late Premier Tafawa Balewa as well as that of Okotie Eboh, the finance minister both of whom were, allegedly, killed in the coup.
10 years later, he was in prime position after the assassination of General Murtala Mohammed as reporter at Daily Times.
Olusegun Osoba, journalist, editor, APC chieftain and former governor of Ogun State, has lived a hyper-charged life. He had several close encounters with death under Sanni Abacha, Nigeria’s Military strongman from 1993 to 1998. Intruders engaged his security detail in gunfire and shot his gate keeper in the head. A year later, they set his house with fire. He went underground, living with relatives and friends
His autobiography Battlelines: Adventures in Journalism and Politics, is much more than a story of an opposition figure on the run from Military autocrats. It is about an epochal career in journalism and politics and adventures of a Lagos Boy in the warm and turbulent city in the 60s.
It is also a ringside account of many of the key milestones in the making of Nigeria in its 60 years of being.
The two-time former Governor of Ogun State fancies himself as an astute newsman. In his own telling, his sharp reportorial instincts lifted him from cub reporter to the editorship of the Daily Times, the most important newspaper in the country at the time, in 11 years. He went on to become the General Manager of The Herald in Ilorin and the Daily Sketch in Ibadan, before returning to Lagos to crown his career as Managing Director of Daily Times in 1984, incidentally, at the time that General Muhammadu Buhari was in power.
ON Wednesday, September 9, 2020, Governor Osoba will be discussing Battlelines with Thecla Wilkie, a Broadcast Journalist with a career spanning 15 years at the Nigerian Television Authority. The event is part of the BookTrek series, an outreach programme of the Committee for Relevant Art (CORA).
Ms. Wilkie’s area of specialization in the broadcast field include News and Programme Productions, TV Presentation and Reporting. She is interested in discovering and exploring innovative ideas, novel approaches, and new ways of thinking to tackle long-standing societal issues and challenges with the ultimate goal of making a difference. She holds a B.A degree in Philosophy from the University of Ibadan and currently pursuing a Masters Degree in Election and Party Politics, at the University of Benin, Nigeria. She is a fellow of the Salzburg Global Seminar, Austria, amongst other fellowship.
See full event details:
Event: BookTrek
Date: Wednesday, September 9, 2020
Time: 4pm Central West African Time
Venue: Zoomdom
Click here to register
